- Currier Museum of Art
- 5 days ago
- 2 min read
Updated: 6 hours ago
Eight large-scale paintings by New England artist Wendy Edwards depict vivid explorations of flora and human forms.
On view September 24, 2025 to April 5, 2026
Category: New England
Credit: Wendy Edwards, Blue Dream, 2024, oil on canvas. Collection of the artist.
About the exhibition:
Flourishing: Paintings by Wendy Edwards inaugurates the Currier’s new Concourse Gallery with eight large-scale canvases by the New England artist (b. 1950), celebrated for her vivid explorations of flora and the human form. Rendered in thick, gestural strokes and bold, unexpected color, Edwards’ recent works affirm both her devotion to expressive painting and the sensuous materiality of oil. Created between 2016 and the present, these paintings situate her within a lineage stretching from Rachel Ruysch (1664–1750) to Vincent van Gogh (1853–1890), among many artists who have reimagined the still life tradition. Edwards is committed to revolutionizing floral and figurative imagery—in painting and drawing—from a personal and distinctively feminist perspective.
“The combination of a lush palette of colors and sensual paint application enables me to synthesize flowers and organs into a complex visual metaphor for powerful forces in my life."
The artist:
Wendy Edwards (b. 1950) is the former Chair and Professor of Visual Art at Brown University where she taught painting and drawing for four decades. She received her BFA in painting at the University of the Arts, Philadelphia, and an MA in art at the University of New Mexico. Artist residencies include Hambidge Center, GA, the MacDowell Colony, NH, Pouch Cove Foundation, Canada, and Auvillar, France. She celebrated her retirement from Brown with a career spanning retrospective “Luscious: Paintings and Drawings by Wendy Edwards” at the Bell Gallery in 2019. Wendy Edwards is represented in the public collections of Bowdoin College Museum of Art, ME, Rhode Island School of Design Museum, RI, Philadelphia Museum of Art, PA, The University of New Mexico, NM, and Karamay Museum, China.
Related events:
Exhibition Opening
Thursday, November 6
Reception and Art Talk
With Embellish Me artists
5 to 8 pm
Tracey Carrier Membership Tour with Wendy Edwards
Thursday, January 15, 2026
11 am
No pre-registration required
Member Exclusive. Become a member here.
Art Talk with Wendy Edwards
Sunday, January 25, 2026
2 pm
Currier Auditorium
Wendy Edwards, Vincent's Slip, 2016, oil on canvas. Collection of the artist.
Wendy Edwards, Flourish, 2019, oil on canvas. Collection of the artist.